The United States government on Tuesday took note of reports that China had launched a disinformation campaign after Operation Sindoor in May to hurt the sales of the French Rafale aircraft in favour of its own J-35 fighter jets.

The Chinese campaign used fake social media accounts to spread Artificial Intelligence-generated photos of supposed debris from Indian fighter jets that Chinese weapons allegedly destroyed, the US report said.

The annual report by the US-China Economic and Security Review Commission was submitted to the US Congress on Tuesday. The independent commission provides recommendations to the US government on matters pertaining to China such as technology, trade and national security.

The report said that Pakistan’s use of Chinese weapons “to down French Rafale fighter jets used by India also became a particular selling point for Chinese embassy defence sales efforts”.

This was “despite the fact that only three jets flown by India’s military were reportedly downed and all may not have been Rafales”, it added.

The US report made the observation citing a report by the Associated Press in July, which quoted French Air Force chief General Jérôme Bellanger as saying that he had seen evidence pointing to three Indian fighter jet losses: a Rafale, a Russian-made Su-30MKI and a Mirage 2000.

The Mirage 2000 is also a French-made fighter jet, but of an earlier generation.

The US report submitted to the Congress on Tuesday said that “Pakistan’s military success over India” in the four-day conflict “showcased Chinese weaponry”. The commission did not elaborate why it had described it as Pakistani success in the conflict.

The US report cited the AP article to also say that “according to French intelligence”, China’s disinformation campaign also used “video game images” to discredit the Rafale and push its own J-35 aircraft.

The J-35 is a fifth-generation fighter jet being inducted into the Chinese People’s Liberation Army Air Force. Pakistan is also planning to procure the jets, according to reports.

The US commission stopped short of describing the conflict in May as a “proxy war” between India and China, saying that doing so “may overstate China’s role as an instigator”.

However, the report said that Beijing “opportunistically leveraged” the conflict to test and advertise the sophistication of its weapons. The Pakistani military also relied upon Chinese intelligence, it added.

The observations were made based on comments by the Indian military in July.

Lieutenant General Rahul R Singh, the deputy Indian Army chief (capability development and sustenance), had said on July 4 that Pakistan was receiving real-time intelligence from China about India’s important military deployments during Operation Sindoor.

Singh said that in the last five years 81% of the military hardware that Pakistan received was Chinese.

“[China] is able to test [its] weapons against various other weapon systems that are there, so it’s like a live lab available to them,” Singh had said.

The four-day conflict

Tensions between New Delhi and Islamabad escalated on May 7 when the Indian military carried out strikes – codenamed Operation Sindoor – on what it claimed were terrorist camps in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir.

The strikes were in response to the terror attack in Jammu and Kashmir’s Pahalgam, which killed 26 persons on April 22.

On May 10, the two sides reached an “understanding” to halt firing.

Pakistan has claimed that it shot down Indian fighter jets during air-to-air combat. The claims made by Islamabad have not been independently verified.

India has acknowledged suffering aircraft losses during the initial phase of the conflict, but has not disclosed the number of planes lost.

On July 7, Indian Defence Secretary RK Singh told CNBC-TV18 that it was incorrect to say that multiple Rafale jets of the Indian Air Force were shot down. “You have used the term Rafales in the plural, I can assure you that is absolutely not correct,” the official told the channel.

The Indian Air Force has also said that it downed five Pakistan aircraft of the F-16 and JF-17 classes during the conflict. While F-16 jets are manufactured in the US, JF-17 aircraft are Chinese-made.

In August, Indian Air Force Chief AP Singh had said that one large Pakistani aircraft, which was either an electronic intelligence plane or an airborne early warning system, was also shot down.

This followed the Indian military’s claim on May 12, two days after the ceasefire, that the Pakistan Air Force had lost “a few” aircraft.

While Islamabad has not commented on losing any of its aircraft, it has acknowledged that several of its airbases were struck by India during the hostilities.

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